Umm Muhammed Umar

The Council on American Islamic Relations’ Brother Ibrahim Hooper, spoke to Radio Islam about CAIR calling on China to free the Uighur Muslim population and end the war on Islam. This followed the release of the much-awaited report on the issue by the United Nations. The report confirmed that for over a decade now, China has been committing genocide against the Uyghurs and other minorities.

Big business and governments have been urged to take heed of these reports. An exasperated Brother Ibrahim said, “these reports keep coming out, the document, the data keeps coming out, and we still see these companies, like we did the campaign against Hilton Hotels for having all these facilities in China and in the Xinjiang region, even on top of a bulldozed mosque, and they’re still there, because they see profit in it.” He added, “until they don’t see profit in it, I don’t know what’s going to happen in this situation.” Brother Ibrahim said that legislation had been passed in the United States to block the products of forced labour, but that companies and nations needed to take this seriously.

Meanwhile, in the US, CAIR had also put out an action alert urging Congress to support representative Eddie Johnson’s resolution honouring the post 911 hate crime victims. Brother Ibrahim said, “we have to mark the tragedy of the 911 attacks and all the people that died in there and honour what happened to them and mark that occasion, and hope that it, in sha Allah never happens again, in any form, in any place in the world, but we also have to recognize that there were other people who suffered as a result of it as well.” He added, “we documented this in the days and months immediately following the 911 attacks, all of the hate crime and discrimination, and even deaths.” He described how people perceived to be Muslim would be targeted, saying, in one case, a Sikh American was killed, and that even people who were Hispanic but perceived to be Muslim were targeted in hate incidents. He said, “So it really was a tragic time for the entire nation. And we just have to remember that, and I think that’s what this resolution highlights.”

The organization has also welcomed the more than 12-year sentence for the 2020 drive by shooting at an Indianapolis Mosque. Brother Ibrahim said, “We’ve always said that when law enforcement authorities get engaged in something like this, they usually do a pretty good job, and we see by this pretty tough sentence, in this case that they were doing a good job.” he said that these kinds of incidences were too regular in their occurrence.

CAIR has called on the state commission to approve requests for the removal of the Confederate flag on display at Arkansas City. According to Brother Ibrahim, the Confederate flag was a symbol of slavery, of white supremacy, and of racism.  He said that whether the confederate flag, or a Confederate statue or monument, they were put up at a time generally, such as the 1920s to the 1950s, when the white supremacist wanted to send a message of intimidation to the black community, indicating, “Look, we’re on top, you’re never going to have your rights, just get used to it.” He said, “these things aren’t meant to honour the heritage of the Confederacy – they’re meant as vehicles of intimidation, targeting African Americans who seek to exercise their rights.”